As of 1990, there were about 9,000 cable television companies in the U.S.

Andy Warhol’s real name was Andy Warhola (1928-87). Born in Pennsylvania, the painter, graphic artist, and filmmaker was best known for incorporating images from mass culture (such as Marilyn Monroe and Coca-Cola bottles) in the style known as Pop Art. The stenciled pictures of Campbell’s soup cans brought Warhol his first brush with fame in … Read more

Yes, Bob Dylan did indeed meet Woody Guthrie, albeit when Guthrie was in his last years. Born Robert Zimmerman in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, young folksinger Bob Dylan hitchhiked to New York in 1960 to visit his musical idol Woody Guthrie, who was hospitalized with Huntington’s chorea. The composer and collector of hundreds of folk … Read more

Standard sizes for ready-made clothing were not developed in America until the Civil War, when the Union Army collected body measurements of more than a million conscripts. The statistical data was needed to meet the demand for large numbers of uniforms. From this beginning, fitting systems with numbered sizes were developed during the latter half … Read more

The British general James Wolfe was killed on the battlefield during the engagement on September 13, 1759. But the French general Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm, was only wounded. He died in bed early the next morning. On September 18, Quebec, the capital of New France, surrendered to the British, marking a crucial turning point … Read more

The earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay area on October 17, 1989, minutes before the third game of the World Series was about to be played between the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants. The earthquake, which measured 7.1 on the Richter scale, killed 67 people and destroyed over 100,000 buildings.

Wall Street got its name from the wall built around Lower Manhattan in colonial times to protect cattle from Indian raids.

Carol Moseley Braun (Democrat, Illinois), whose term began in 1993, was the first black woman senator. The first black senator was Hiram Revels of Mississippi, who served during Reconstruction, 1870-71.

In the Kellogg-Briand Pact, signed on August 27, 1928, the US., France, Great Britain, Japan, Italy, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Poland all agreed to give up war as an instrument of foreign policy. However, the treaty lacked enforcement power, and within 14 years all the parties that signed it were fighting in World War II. The … Read more

The Great Depression in the 19th century was the worldwide period of deflation that lasted from 1873 to 1897 and caused erratic fluctuations in economic activity in the U.S. Unlike the Great Depression of the 1930s, it was not marked by low productivity.

The American Communist party was never so popular as during World War II, when the United States and the Soviet Union were allies. Founded soon after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the party reached a peak membership of about 100,000 during World War II. Afterward, Cold War repression made it unsafe to stay in the … Read more

Du Pont chemist Wallace Hume Carrothers invented the artificial polymer nylon in the 1930s while searching for alternatives to silk. Nylon stockings first came on the market with heavy publicity on what was billed as “Nylon Day,” May 15, 1940. Women hungry for a cheap and durable alternative to silk stockings bought millions of pairs … Read more

The first “Negro History Week” was organized in the second week of February, 1926, by Carter G. Woodson. It was meant to include the birthday of Abraham Lincoln and the traditional birthday of Frederick Douglass. It was expanded in the 1960s to “Black History Month.”

As depicted in some spy movies, the president would not press a button; he would make a phone call. To begin a nuclear attack, the president telephones the commander in chief at the Strategic Air Command in Omaha, Nebraska; several officers at SAC would verify the president’s orders. Once verified, instructions would go to bomber … Read more

The Governor’s Palace in Santa Fe, New Mexico, built by the Spanish in 1609, is the oldest surviving building of non-Indian design in the United States.

There were two Children’s Crusades, both in A.D. 1212. In the first, a French peasant boy named Stephen of Vendome led thousands of children toward Palestine to free the Holy Land; they were either shipwrecked or sold into slavery. In the same year, a boy preacher named Nicholas led thousands of German children as far … Read more

The first eight-hour day in America was instituted for federal employees in public work projects in 1868. Before the law was passed, an average workday could run 10 to 12 hours. In 1867, the Illinois state legislature had passed a law proclaiming the eight-hour day to be “the legal workday in the state.” But the … Read more

Louisiana named after King Louis XIV of France, who reigned from 1643 to 1715. The entire Mississippi River Valley was named Louisiana and claimed for France by Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, in 1682.

No one knows for sure who first said “Taxation without representation is tyranny”. Lawyer James Otis is often credited with having coined the phrase in 1761, but the evidence for that is shaky. The exact words did not appear in print until 1820, when John Adams recalled them in some notes.

The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness (begun at Pimlico, Baltimore, in 1873), and the Belmont (begun in 1867 at Jerome Park, New York; now held in Belmont Park, New York) make up the Triple Crown. Sir Barton in 1919 first won the Triple Crown.

The Union had a population of about 20,700,000 during the Civil War. The 11 states of the Confederacy had a population of 9,100,000 including nearly 4,000,000 slaves.

Rev. Samuel F. Smith wrote the lyrics for this song “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” (also called “America”) to the music of the British national anthem, “God Save the King” in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1832.

The “Mexican cession” was the territory Mexico called the “Far North,” including what are today California, Nevada, Utah, most of New Mexico and Arizona, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. In return Mexico received $15 million, was set free of $3 million in American claims, and got rid of American forces occupying its capital. The … Read more

Two U.S. presidents are buried in Arlington National Cemetery: William Howard Taft and John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

From 1929 to 1931, the tallest building in the world before the Empire State Building was opened was the Chrysler Building in New York City. In the 1920s, its architect, William Van Alen, was commissioned to design the world’s tallest building. Simultaneously his former partner, H. Craig Severance, was commissioned by another company to do … Read more

It was 24th president William Howard Taft (1857-1930) who was in office when the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1909 and ratified in 1913. The federal income tax gave the federal government power to collect tax “among the several states and without regard to census”.

The government lowered the draft age of U.S. military recruits from 20 to 18 on November 12, 1942, to expand American forces during World War II.

John Adams (served 1797-1801) was known as “His Rotundity”.

During the Revolutionary War years, 90 percent of Americans were farmers. By World War II, the number had shrunk to 15 percent. Today fewer than 3 percent of the population are farmers.

First Bull Run, Virginia Confederacy July 21, 1861 Shiloh, Tennessee Union April 6-7, 1862 Second Bull Run, Virginia Confederacy August 29-30, 1862 Antietam, Maryland Union September 17, 1862 Federicksburg, Virginia Confederacy December 13, 1862 Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi Union May 22—July 4, 1863 Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Union July 1-3, 1863 The Wilderness, Virginia Union May 5-6, … Read more

Lincoln’s “eye for an eye” order was an order issued in 1863 during the Civil War that the Union would shoot a Confederate prisoner for every black Union prisoner shot. It would also condemn a Confederate prisoner to hard labor for life for every black prisoner sold into slavery. The order was meant to deter … Read more

An American “Continental Navy” was established by the Second Continental Congress on October 13, 1775. It was disbanded after the War of Independence, in 1784. The first U.S. Navy was not established until April 30, 1798.

Generations of fans and enemies of rock and roll have thought that it does, but in all probability it does not. The original song as written and recorded by Richard Berry in 1956 has tame lyrics about longing to see a certain girl while sailing across the Caribbean Sea. However, in the hit version by … Read more

Bangladesh was founded in 1971. Formerly East Bengal and then East Pakistan, it rebelled against Pakistan, with help from India in 197. Bangladesh was not recognized by Pakistan until 1974.

The last smoking sign in Times Square, which had advertised Winston cigarettes for five years, stopped blowing rings September 13, 1977. Like its predecessors for much of the twentieth century, it blew about 1,000 rings a day; a steam-producing box, located behind the head of the man in the sign, created the rings. The Winston … Read more

No GM chairman ever said, “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country”. The line actually was, “What’s good for the country, is good for General Motors, and vice-versa,” and it was said by Charles Wilson, a former GM head who was at the time the secretary of defense under President Eisenhower.

Legend claims that when sentenced to death in 1776 by the British for spying, Nathan Hale proclaimed, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” But British officer Captain Frederick Mackenzie reports in his diaries that Hale said, “It is the duty of every good officer to obey any … Read more